Marionette Zombie Series (Book 7): The Forgotten Place
Page 1
The Forgotten Place
Book 7
The Marionette Zombie Series
SB Poe
Copyright
© 2019 SB Poe
All rights reserved
For all of you on this journey with me, thank you.
For all of you who cheer me on, thank you.
To my wife and kids. Love you
The Forgotten Place
1
The Gates of Hell
3
2
Come Back, Once More
21
3
Road and Bridges
50
4
Don't Look Away
64
5
Strange Places, Familiar Faces
80
6
Heavy Lifting
96
7
What Comes Next
110
8
The End of Ever
131
9
Too Far to Turn Around
144
10
The Hard Part
165
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
1
The Gates of Hell
“Where’s my son?” Kate asked through the fence.
Bridger dropped the deadun’s ankles and straightened up. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand and squinted as the sun peaked over her shoulder.
“Collier.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s where I left him.” He said as he looked back down at the pile of deaduns.
“Why did you leave him?” she asked.
He bent down and grabbed the thing’s ankles again and started dragging it off the road.
“He’s fine Kate and I promise I’ll tell you all about it when we get these bastards out of the way.” Bridger said.
A ragged shriek pierced the air and Bridger looked up briefly from the task at hand.
“That shit is getting old.” He said.
The cry erupted from among the deaduns struggling to free themselves from the jagged stumps and branches that pierced them. Tilly jumped up on the hood of the truck and looked out over the dead, still writhing on the ground. She tried to pinpoint the source of the latest outburst but it stopped. There were too many of them to know which one it was and besides, five minutes from now it would be a different one.
“We need to take care of them.” Tilly said as she made a gun with her hand pulled the simulated trigger.
“Not like that,” Scott said, looking up at her. He wiped his hands on his pants, leaving streaks of rot from the deadun he just pulled off the road. “Too loud.”
“Too loud? Too loud?” Tilly asked as another shrill cry filled the air. “Really? Do you hear that?”
“But them screaming is different.” Scott said.
“Why?” Tilly asked. He didn’t have an answer.
“Well, we can figure that out after we get these shitheads out of the road and get that gate open far enough to drive through.” Bridger said as he pulled the next one off the pile.
Emma Grace snapped awake. She watched Cody’s breathing well into the early morning hours, occasionally adjusting his blanket and wiping his brow. Her eyes focused on his chest and she took a little sigh when she saw the steady rise and fall. She stood and leaned over to the window, pulling the curtain aside as she did. The sun was rising and the house’s shadow stretched out in front of her across the yard and into the street. She turned as a soft knock came at the door.
“Emma Grace?” Devin cracked open the door and leaned his head through.
“Come on in.” She said. “He’s still asleep.”
“How are you doing?” he asked as he stepped in the room. His eyes roamed towards the head of the bed as he sat down on the chair next to the window.
“Ok, I guess. Just wish he would wake up.”
“He will.” Devin said. “Do you want anything?”
“Where is Mrs. Hardy?” Emma Grace asked.
“Uh, we laid her out back by the shed.” He said, surprised by the question. “Vernon said y’all bury folks over near the church. We’ll take her over there when the others get back.”
“Where did they go?” Emma Grace asked.
“Lori and Josh wanted to find more medical supplies so Violet volunteered to show them where to look.”
“Violet?” Emma Grace sounded surprised.
“Yeah, she went with them so Vernon could rest a little. He sat up most of the night, right outside that door.” Devin said, throwing his thumb over his shoulder. “He finally fell asleep on the floor and no one felt like waking him.”
“How do you know he sat up?”
“Because I sat up with him.”
“Why?” She asked.
“I wanted you to be okay. I wanted to be ready in case something bad happened.” Devin said as he glanced towards Cody. “I wanted to be here for you.”
She watched as he glanced over at her when he spoke the last line. She smiled. He smiled back. Another knock came at the door.
“Emma Grace, can I come in.” Vernon said.
Devin looked at Emma Grace. She nodded. He stood and opened the door.
“Morning Vernon.” Emma Grace said as he stepped through the door.
“How’s he doing?” He asked.
“About the same. Which is good, I think.” She said. “Can you sit with him for a little while? I need to stretch my legs a bit.”
“Sure.” Vernon slid into the chair she had just vacated.
“Walk with me?” Emma Grace turned to Devin.
“Where are we going?” He said as he followed her out the door, closing it behind him.“I wanna show you something, come on.” She said. She led him through the kitchen and out the door.
Josh stepped up on the porch and leaned his head against the window. Nothing moved inside. He knocked. Violet and Lori looked at him from the other window, both nodding their heads side to side.
“Is it unlocked?” Violet asked.
“Yep,” he said as the handle turned in his hand.
He stuck his head inside the door and whistled. Nothing stirred. They all walked into the darkened room. Lori flipped on her flashlight. A medical degree hung in an ornate frame on the wall. Tatum Gerard Hardy. Emory University. She shined the light on the desk and looked at the picture.
“Who’s that?” Lori said, pointing at it.
Violet leaned down and looked. She had seen the picture of the man with the child’s face before. She’d been in this room before.
“That’s Bennie.” Violet said. “The Hardy’s son. He died a long time ago, before I was even born. He had Down’s or something.”
“So this is it?” Josh asked as he looked around the room.
“Well, it’s Doc Hardy’s office. The exam rooms are through that door. The waiting room past that. That’s how it worked. You’d come in on the Leaf Street side to the waiting room, go to the exam room and leave the way you came. But sometimes he would bring you back here to tell you and your family what was going on if it was bad. Then you could leave out the back door.”
“Did you work here?” Lori asked.
“Nah, Doc Hardy was the town pediatrician, so most everyone came through here. The little doc in a box place out by the Wal-Mart turned into a pill mill a while ago, so a lot of folks would come here even if they were grown.
” Violet said.
“Well, let’s get what we came for.” Josh said as he walked over and reached for the door to the exam room hallway.
“Wait.” Violet started. “Remember when I told you we were close to the edge of the barricade? This is it. Well, not that door there but inside. The other entrance, the main entrance, that’s the end. Leaf Street is on the goner side.”
“It's locked up, right?” Lori asked.
Violet nodded “And a bunch of stuff piled against the doors and windows,” she added.
“Well, we should be fine then.” She nodded at Josh and he swung the door open.
Josh stepped into the darkness. Lori’s flashlight bounced from wall to wall as she stepped in behind him. The first door on the right was half open. Josh pushed it the rest of the way with the barrel of the rifle he carried.
“Look in there.” Josh said as he motioned towards the cabinet on the wall.
Violet stepped over to the cabinet and swung it open as Lori’s flashlight swept across the room and landed on the shelves. She took the backpack off and sat it on the counter by the sink. They emptied the cabinet contents into the pack. Violet stuffed the last bandage down inside and zipped it up. Lori slung it back on her shoulders.
“That’ll do for now. If we need any more, we know where to look.” Josh said.
They went back outside and Josh closed the door behind them. The sun had gotten a foothold among the clouds and was climbing. They walked down the street towards the morning sky.
“Why do y’all do this?” Violet asked as they walked.
“What’s that?” Lori asked.
“Help.” Violet started. “The others, Jahda and the big guy, the first thing they said to me was that y’all were here to help. Pete asked the big guy why?”
“What did he say?” Josh asked over his shoulder.
“He said ‘Because we can’.”
“There’s your answer. I mean we weren’t looking to help, but a long time ago my mom said something that stuck with all of us. We’re still here. And that’s what matters. We were just looking for supplies.”
“Yeah, that’s what Devin said. Before y’all got here.” Violet said sheepishly.
“We heard.” Lori said.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“Look we get it.” Josh said as he stopped and turned around.
“Yeah, but I don’t get y’all. Y’all even came all the way out here to the edge of the barricade to get some shit for someone y’all barely even met.”
“So?”
“So? So he wouldn’t have done it for y’all. I promise ya that. No one in this town would have. The folks that were here, they didn’t care about nothing but themselves.”
“You were here.”
“Yeah, well, I was the same way.” She started walking again. Josh and Lori stood looking at each other for another second. Lori shrugged; they started walking too.
“Why?” Lori asked as she caught up with Violet.
“It was just the way it was. No one helped anyone if they didn’t have to. That boy that lost his arm, Cody, his daddy is why.” Violet began. “When this all started he took charge. He’d cuss, bully and bullshit everyone to get things done. After a while folks got used to it, or they left. The ones that stayed all had the same attitude. Do whatever Cotton says, and that’s it. And I mean it. No one would lift a finger to help anyone else unless Cotton told them too.”
“What did he have y’all do?” Josh asked from behind. Violet spun around and walked backwards a few steps.
“Not anything weird, if that’s what you’re thinking. In the beginning it was just working on getting the barricade up. He had Cody put together a few teams to go outside to get things.”
“What things?” Lori asked.
“Food mostly, from the stores out on the bypass. We emptied most of them over the winter.”
“You went?”
“Sometimes. They had killed or caught most of the goners.”
“Caught?”
“Yeah, that was the other thing Cotton had them do. Catch goners and hang them up on the bridge.”
Josh and Lori stopped walking. Violet looked back over her shoulder at them.
“Why?” Lori asked.
“Well, he said it was to keep thieves away.” Violet said.
“Did it work?”
“No one stole shit. But I don’t think that’s why he did it.” Violet said.
“No?” Lori asked.
“Nope. Cotton did that as a giant old fuck you to the goners.” Violet said as she started walking again. She looked over at Lori and saw the look on her face.
“Yeah, we knew it was some sick shit. We also knew we were still alive and Cotton was a big reason why. So yeah, we knew that stuff was fucked up and Cotton was a sadistic asshole but sometimes the only way to keep warm is to make a deal with the devil.” She turned the corner as the steeple cast its shadow across the road. She stopped.
The bodies still lay where Bridger and Jahda had left them. Violet recognized most of the faces, even though they were bloating slightly. She paused momentarily before moving on.
“We need to do something with these folks. Soon.” Lori said.
“Over there.” Violet pointed towards the other side of the church. “That’s the cemetery.”
“You bury your dead?” Josh asked.
“You don’t?” Violet replied.
As Lori turned to respond, a scream pierced the air.
“What was that?” Josh turned to his left.
“It sounded like an animal or something.” Lori said.
“Yeah, it did.” Violet said. “But I don’t think it was.”
“Neither do I. Come on.” Josh said as he started walking towards the back of the church.
“You think it came from the other side of the barricade?” Lori asked as they walked a little faster.
“I damn sure hope so.” Josh said as he started jogging.
They reached the barricade beside the church. He climbed over several large logs and up on the hood of a car. He scrambled to the roof so he could see over the chain-link fence strung across the road.
“Up here.” He reached his hand down and pulled Lori up beside him. Violet hopped up on the trunk and joined them on the roof.
“What the hell?” Lori said.
The deadun in the street just below them was slowly walking away. It was a little taller than Josh. Its skin was ash gray. Josh thought it looked like rancid meat.
“I’ve never seen one like that.” Violet said. “It looks like that thing from that movie. The thing that kept trying to get a ring or something.”
“Gollum. Yeah, except a lot bigger.” Josh said.
The roof of the car gave a little under their weight, just enough to make a loud popping sound. The thing’s head whipped around at the sound and it pivoted towards them. Lori took half a step back, and the metal buckled again.
“Oh, shit.” Violet said as the thing started towards them.
The fifty yards between the deadun and the fencing closed quickly. All of them stood, mouth agape, as the thing galloped towards them. The fence shook and rattled when it slammed into it. Lori and Violet turned to run but the sound of the rifle crack stopped them. They looked back at Josh as he fired twice more at the thing. Lori stepped back up on the roof and looked over the fence. The thing lay on the ground, a steady pool of rot flowing from the part of its head still attached to its body, the rest of its head was sprayed out on the asphalt behind it.
She looked at Josh. He still had the rifle shouldered. She reached out and touched his arm.
“You got it.” She said.
“Yeah, but what was it?” Josh lowered the gun.
2
Come back, once more
The truck rolled to a stop next to the bus. Jahda moved the shifter into park as she stepped out. She reached in and grabbed the wayward can of beans and dropped it into one of the plastic tubs in the bed. As she looked at the
canned goods and clothes, she smiled a little. She knew they had left as much as they had found and if Bridger could get the others to go with them they’d have all they needed for a while. And it wasn’t like they had done anything to those folks.
“We were just trying to help.” She thought to herself.
She turned and saw the blur come shooting out of the saloon. Ham almost knocked her over as she jumped up into her arms.
“JAHDA!!!” Ham cried.
“Hey little girl. Miss me?” She said as she lowered her to the ground.
“For sure. And we had a bunch of stringers here. Tons of them.”
“I saw them.” Jahda said as she glanced towards the fence.
“Lots more than that. Hundreds.”
“I know. I saw them too.” Jahda said. “Out there. They were chasing a horse.”
Ham stepped back a little.
“A horse?” Ham asked. She didn’t wait to hear the answer.
She spun on her heels and took off running back towards the saloon. Jahda thought she heard her yell MR. DAY as she ran off but that made little sense. Her eyebrows knitted as she watched her go. She shrugged and followed her towards the door.
Bridger sat the post back into its hole. The fence had a noticeable bow in it where the dead had stretch the metal inward. He looked through it at the pile they had just dragged to the side of the narrow dirt road. He felt his hands shake just a little and rubbed them together.
“Feeling okay?” Kate asked.
“Fine.” he said. He turned to walk towards the saloon.
“So?” Kate asked.
“So what?” He said. She reached up and grabbed his arm. He stopped.
“So where is my son and why is he not with you?” She asked.
“He’s fine.”
“Good, but that’s not an answer. Do you have any idea what happened here last night? All those things you just dragged off the fence? They didn’t just grow out of the ground and that was just a small part of what’s out there.”